The GreenwichTime.com you see today probably looks a bit different than the one you saw yesterday.
Make that a lot different.
The site you see today is the work of countless hours of work, both locally here in Connecticut and across Hearst Corporation.
There are so many new features that you might not notice them all at first. So we’ve put together a nice list of the big ones:
• A new, cleaner look. Our old site was, in a word, cluttered. We think you’ll love our new look. We’ve shed a lot of the excess to get back to the core mission of the site: To provide our readers with everything they need to know about their world, from Greenwich and beyond.
• No more anonymous comments. We heard you. While we obviously encourage discussion, anonymous comments rarely add anything meaningful. On our new site, users are required to provide an e-mail address when they register. Once we verify its authenticity, readers are encouraged to leave comments on stories, photos, videos and blog posts.
• An easier way to purchase reprinted photos. See a picture we’ve taken of you or a loved one that you just have to own a copy of? Just click the “Buy This Photo” link below the picture. It’s that easy.
• Way better search. Search isn’t just limited to articles anymore. Now, a search for, say, “Tesei” will return all of our articles about Peter Tesei, but also all of our pictures, videos and blog posts about the first selectman as well.
• Better multimedia. More slideshows. More videos. Our users click through our slideshows by the thousands every day, and our new site will give them bigger and better slideshows to explore.
Keep in mind that the site is still in “beta” mode, so you may see some weirdness here and there. If you do, please send us some feedback so we can take a look at it.
So click around! Explore the new site. I think you’re going to find it’s vastly better than our old one.
I can agree with the enhancements, but, the main page has little class and offers little graphically. Bring back the clock. Having to enter “Website” also doesnt give me much faith that this local paper will be given its justice in terms of personality and hopefully Im wrong, reportage.
Comment by Chuck — December 28th, 2009 @ 6:30 pm
Keith I don’t know who you were listening to but it wasn’t the usually readers and blogger of Greenwich Time. The usual bloggers were mostly honest and respectful of each other and the situation. Of course, occasionally a pithy comment shows up in print but we all took it in stride. We enjoyed the diversity of opinions and comments, even if we didn’t always agree with the individual. Makes one wonder WHO were you really listening to and why this need for censorship.
Comment by Townie — December 28th, 2009 @ 7:05 pm
Looks great, but you might add a link to local news on the homepage, and the link on the news page to local news is broken:
http://www.greenwichtime.com/local
Good work,
John
Comment by John Bowman — December 28th, 2009 @ 7:30 pm
Miss seeing the top 5 stories of the day.
Comment by Local news — December 28th, 2009 @ 9:15 pm
Looks much better–glad readers are able to comment again! Now, hopefully, the Opinion section will be filled with opinions and editorials more than a year old! If there are not enough locals in town sending in opinions, perhaps you can import editorials from state or national feeds (like other local papers do). Keep up debates on local issues, but also encourage debate on larger issues.
Comment by Hannah — December 28th, 2009 @ 10:44 pm
The loss of the venerable Greenwich Time masthead from the top of the site’s home page is most unfortunate. In this day and age of digital transition, newspapers need to work at retaining as much brand equity as possible.
Comment by Trevor — December 29th, 2009 @ 8:39 am
Why isn’t Beth Dolinar’s column included in the on-line Greenwich Time?
Comment by Joe Gagliardi — December 29th, 2009 @ 10:55 am
@Chuck,
The new site is http://www.greenwichtime.com/. THIS site is Keith Whammond’s blog which is simply announcing the new site. The comment form here is unrelated to the comment form that appears on items on the news site. The “website” field *here* is also not required, so you can leave it blank if you wish.
Hope that clears it up a bit for ya!
Comment by Ryan V — December 29th, 2009 @ 11:00 am
I like the new functionality, but as another poster said, the front page is lacking in class. This could be easily improved by bringing back the clock and a slightly more classic page look.
Comment by Joe Schmoe — December 29th, 2009 @ 11:05 am
I miss the clock too. Its part of Greenwich and what poeple remember when there looking at the site!!! You can tell by all the comments!!!
Comment by Dave — December 30th, 2009 @ 10:45 am
Ditto on all previous remarks, especially on bringing back the previous masthead (Branding 101). Please bring back ‘Today in History’ this is fun for trivia nuts but also for young readers.
Comment by Greenwich Resident — December 30th, 2009 @ 10:49 am
And you need to fix the links from RSS feeds and for that matter, links to any story in GT or the Advocate from any source. They don’t work. This is colossal screw up. Stop bragging, get to work.
Comment by John Bowman — December 30th, 2009 @ 10:58 pm
John,
Thanks for your feedback. I’m not sure that anyone here is bragging. If anything, we’re attempting to let people know there may be bumps in the road as we launch the new sites.
Our RSS feeds will be up and prominent soon.
Comment by Keith Whamond — December 31st, 2009 @ 10:15 am